PRKSIDKNT S ADDRESS. 5 



that no very clear line of distinction can be drawn between Race, 

 Nationality, or even Statehood, which will alone account for the 

 d'flferences and prejudices which exist between the several 

 peoples of Europe. There are questions of language, territory, 

 natural or artificial boundaries, hereditary rulership, and many 

 other factors all involved to such an extent that what is at first 

 detmed to be race-consciousness very frequently proves on a 

 closer examination to be something far more recent and artificial 

 than that. 



The historical development of a people producing national 

 identity is conditioned not only by natural heredity and environ- 

 ment, but also by ideas superimposed upon these, and the growth 

 and influence of the last-named are extremely subtle. As 

 exerting a natural force geography accounts for much that is 

 peculiar to certain peoples, though it is a long story to trace, 

 for instance, the growth of the characteristics of an island people 

 through the ideas growing out of fishing and seafaring habits 

 which have hardened into propensities. Moreover, it has to 

 be remembered that there are forces which work in an opposite 

 direction with an equally pov/erful effect, as witness the case of 

 the Jews by the force of ideas preserving a race intact through 

 all the years in defiance of geography. 



Ideas come from many sources, such as the habits and occu- 

 pations of the people. The history of a country like Great 

 Britain reveals how economic conditions bring about easily 

 recognized changes in physical and mental type, having many 

 advantages in transmitted capacity and adaptability for the par- 

 ticular difficulties involved in the occupations concerned, thus in 

 a particular sphere producing a very definite form of conscious- 

 ness. As to its nature, it may be noted that the content of the 

 consciousness will often be found marked by ideas which have 

 a narrowing effect upon life as a wdiole. But let new racial 

 elements be introduced, or new industries w'hich require a re- 

 adjustment of outward relationships and an enlargement of the 

 circle, the very friction and criticism introduced by this will 

 stimulate a further life. A particular nationality like that 

 of the English has received very marked and definite 

 enrichment from those who have been welcomed from 

 other lands through the policy of the open door, but 

 whose numbers at any one time have not been so great as 

 to prevent them from being absorbed into the body politic. 

 Therein is a lesson for young nations, anxious to broaden their 

 life while retaining their identity. A distributed settlement may 

 be inconvenient at first for the settlers, but if they come from 

 a land far behind in civilization it is better for them and the 

 land of their adoption that they should not constitute 

 coteries of separate and possibly disaffected nationalities exer- 

 cising a narrowing influence. iBoth their descendants and the 

 country and its people gain by absorption, a narrowing influence 

 being thereby transformed into a broadening and stimulating^— r;---^ 

 element. Of this there are numerous illustrations in Eupou^V^VU^^ 



